The Stage
A relaxed duo offering up a delightful selection of songs
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Jazz Review
In short: a gem of an album, pulling off the difficult feat of simultaneously showcasing Martin's unrivalled vocal gifts and celebrating the extraordinarily moving quality of Horn's music. Strongly recommended.
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The Jazz Rag
The result is wholly listenable - a happy hour of music.
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Record Collector
Martin sings with her now familiar emotional power, maintaining her concentration with the song in hand, and always remaining totally believable.
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BBC Music Magazine
Claire Martin shows why she's one of today's most sought-after singers
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Jazz Times
(Her) voice is one of the most satisfying instruments in jazz.
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Claire Martin - He Never Mentioned Love - Mojo

03 July 2007MojoFred Dellar

The late Shirley Horn was one of Miles Davis's favourite singers. It's said that he once refused to play the Village Vanguard unless she was also involved. Claire Martin, arguably Britain's finest jazz singer, has therefore chosen a near impossible act to follow. Horn was all about keeping things intimate, the whisper-in-the-ear approach, never playing to the grandstand. And Martin, with the aid of her regular pianist Gareth Williams and some hand-picked guests that include guitarist Jim Mullen and trumpet-star Gerard Presencer, has adhered to that candle-lit cafe approach on a selection of material spanning such standards as Trav'lling Light, You're Nearer and Leon Russell's A Song For You, along with a brace of originals, including bassist Laurence Cottle's Slowly But Shirley, which, despite its title, provides the singer with one of the album's rare opportunities to move uptempo.